Realizing the Dream

This morning I planted seedlings. The tiny turnips pushing their little green leaves toward the sky are a positive affirmation to my ever greening thumb. We have a very simple arrangement, these seedlings and I, wherein I provide food, water, and fertile soil and they provide me with food and a healthy serving of happiness and accomplishment. And as I tucked each turnip into it's new home of sandy loam I was reminded of another time and place where I sat in the same position, kneeling before a much more mature plant--my favorite plant--a tomato.

Here, I sat before a long row of towering tomato plants. Cherry, Beefsteak, Roma all lined up and happy as could be. My now dear friend and farming advisor, Heather R., had grown these beauties from seeds earlier in the season and they were paying her back for the love and attention lavished on them with sagging branches laden with ripe red and yellow fruits. The air was saturated with the very distinct and wonderful smell of tomato plants. I remember the pure happiness as I picked ripe tomatoes off the branches and put them in a basket at my side. Justin's mother, Kimi, had brought me here for my first visit to Heather's pastoral Green Acres Farm. Justin and I had just moved from San Luis Obispo to Auburn to start our life together and I was feeling lost and a little scared of the magnitude of our move. But being at Green Acres amongst the bees and butterflies that were diligently at work beside us, pollinating the new flowers so we could have another round of vegetables was the perfect medicine. The scent of these tomato plants struck a memory of home, of the beautiful garden my Poppy would grow every year. His tomatoes were the prized plants of the garden and we always had the beautiful fruit in the house. Being out in the sunshine amongst them doing the work he did every summer was a wonderful comfort, a sense of home.

Then there was this distinct feeling of wholeness that came over me, as if my heart knew all along what I needed to be doing with myself, but my head was too caught up in the belief that I should have a six-figure job in an office at a desk. And with that completeness came a sense of calm. I looked around and everything that I saw was like a jolt of recognition. Yes, here is the garden where I will live on organic wholesome fruit and veggies. Yes, there in the pasture are the goats that will provide the milk, cheese, and yogurt that I love so much. Aha, there are the chickens scratching and crooning at the ground in search of worm and bugs, they will provide eggs and meat. Yes this is the life for me.

Of course it took me a couple more years to get fully into the swing of farming and get the confidence to really go for it, but that day was such a confirmation of the path I should take that I've never looked back or felt the need to apologize for not having a desk job in some office. Yes I do have a day job, but it is a fun place that allows me to push our farm goals further.

So here I am now with a greenhouse full of seedlings: tomatoes (of course), peppers, eggplants, broccoli, lettuce, beets, and turnips. Up the hill there is a barnyard full of chickens laying eggs and three goats (two of which are pregnant), and a hut housing 50 meat chickens. Things are pretty great here right now and only getting better.

The Beautiful Life

Our farm is nothing fancy. We do what we can with the little space and the equipment we have. We don't have a big red picturesque barn with lazy barn cats lounging in the bales of hay. We've scrounged together a modest barn surrounded by wire fencing and t-posts. We did, however, splurge on a wonderful electric netting unit and a fence charger. The most wonderful thing this provides for our animals is safe mobility. I ordered the fence off of the Kencove website. They call it a feathernet because its electric wires create a small enough grid to keep the chickens or goats in and the predators out. It came with step-in posts that are easily pushed into whatever piece of ground we desire to put it in. In our heavily wooded property Justin and I can get this thing assembled in about half an hour mostly because we need to clear paths for the fence to go. If we find a place out in the open it takes about 10 minutes. Then the animals can roam around in a new pasture. Eating, scratching, sleeping, and pooping to their heart's content until it's time to move to the next space.

Joel Salatin, my guru of farming and animal husbandry, has really capitalized on the innovation of electric fencing. His idea is that the movement to new spaces every few days keeps them healthy. They stimulate the flora to grow with their hooves and claws and then leave the wonderful gift of their manure to feed the next flush of growth. It's such a wonderful system and it makes so much sense because we are improving the land with our animals while we feed them. Letting them do what they do best, the way nature intended.

This is why we named our farm Schone Vida, Beautiful Life. It is our guidepost to the way our farm shall be run forever. A holistic goal on which to base our management decisions. A reminder that if we are to succeed, our animals must be able to behave as naturally as possible. This means experiencing the sunshine and breeze while laying in the leaf duff or grass. Why does this matter? Because we, as farmers rely on these animals to support our lifestyle. Unhappy and sick animals do not perform to the best of their ability and they certainly do not produce the best meat, eggs, or milk. I have had the pleasure of tasting the difference and I have discovered that our beautiful life on the farm produces truly the most beautiful food.

Let Us Eat Cheese!

This morning's milking went a little more smoothly that yesterday's. Tinkerbell is very clever and seems to be getting the hang of our routine. Of course, it is really nice to have Justin there to talk and pat her while I milk. Today she was more relaxed. Now I just have to get these milking fingers back in shape so I can get the chore done faster for her.

Other than our mild success on the stanchion I am happy to report that by tomorrow morning we will have more than enough milk to make a good amount of soft goat cheese! I am going to get the mesophilic starter today. Spreadable cheese is only the beginning! Soon we will have yogurt, cheddar, kefir, moldy cheese, and ice cream. This farm girl loves her dairy products and her farm guy loves his ice cream. Thanks to Tinkerbell for making it possible on a very small budget!

On another exciting note, we will be putting in our first grass seed to make a small grass pasture for the goats and chickens. I didn't think this would be a possibility for us, but after having the goats and meat chickens clean out a spot that was heavily grown over by manzanita and deer brush we have a nice sunny patch to start a pasture. This might not seem like a big deal, but on a 5 acre property that is composed of 80% manzanita forest any little victory is celebrated. The cool thing about all this is the minimal amount of human effort that went into clearing the spot. All we have to do now is saw out the large trunks of manzanita and cut them up for firewood. Space for pasture and warmth for the winter, its a win-win! I'll try to document the process for ya'll.

Meet Tinkerbell

On Sunday afternoon Schone Vida welcomed a new face to the barnyard, Tinkerbell. Tink is a 3 year old (we think) Nubian doe. The real awesome part about her is that she is currently producing milk! That means in a short span of time we are going to be enjoying fresh raw goat milk and more excitingly cheese!

Tinkerbell on the right

Now taking on this big responsibility was not something I, nor Justin, took lightly. Bringing a milking doe onto the farm requires us to make sure she gets milked every day. Yes, we already have Charlotte, but she will not be in milk until next spring. Because of my full commitment and uber excitement for this lifestyle, I knew this wouldn't be a problem.

Tinkerbell came to us from a lovely woman in a neighboring town. She told us that she'd tried to milk Tink for a while, but that it was always a struggle to get her on the stanchion and to hold still during the process. I knew that training Tink to get on the stanchion and quietly stand through milking would take a few weeks. She is strong girl, so getting her to do something she might not necessarily want to do is a struggle. My job is to show her that milking is a relaxing time for her to eat her grain away from the other goats. In a couple weeks I should be able to go out to open the barnyard gate and have her calmly put herself in the stanchion. All it will take is patience and lots of consistency.

The first day I put her on the stanchion I was nearly finished milking her out when she kicked putting her right rear hoof directly into the milk pail. As they say, there's no use crying over spilled milk. I calmly took a deep breath removed her foot from the milk pail and continued milking her out. Once I was finished I patted and talked quietly to her. She and I are going to spend a lot of time together, so I want her to trust me.

That night I read up on all things goat, finding this amazing website from a farm back east called Fias Co Farm. They have a large herd of La Mancha dairy goats that they raise holistically. The owner, Molly, is very knowledgeable about herbs and their various uses. On her website, she talked about this goat hobble she uses on nervous milkers. Essentially it is a 2 in wide piece of nylon with Velcro that you wrap around the goats upper legs to put pressure on the rear ligament. The pressure is enough to render the goat unable to kick. In time, Molly says 2 weeks, the goat learns to stand quietly without kicking at all. I immediately ordered one for us. It cost me $10, but will save me lots of frustration and tears later. I know Charlotte will definitely need it when she's in milk since she's the biggest punk ever.

After milking Tinkerbell had another milestone to pass before she was in the clear. She had to meet Charlotte and Buttercup. First, I introduced Charlotte knowing that grew up in a large herd of goats. They sniffed each other then happily ate hay nearby. Next I brought in Buttercup. She is the dominant goat since she has horns and a major attitude. Well she calmly met Tink then came back around and challenged her with a mock head butt. Tinkerbell played it right by immediately putting Buttercup in her place with a well back up head butt and push. Buttercup quickly got the point and moved on. Now the three of them are calmly munching on food in the barnyard.

Welcome Tinkerbell, I know we'll have many of great years together at Schone Vida!

A Wonderful Summer Day

Yesterday was the type of day full of activities that make Summer so wonderfully special around here. Farming, swimming, and canning. That's pretty much what my days off will consist of from now until the first rains in late Fall.

Justin and I started the day off with our usual copious amounts of coffee and my now ritualistic morning yoga routine. Then it was time to farm before the day got too hot to think straight. We took wheelbarrow fulls of compost here and there throughout the garden. It's been 2 months since we actively began composting this pile and I'm still amazed that this dark brown earthy-smelling substance was nothing but a giant pile of cover crop, straw, wood chips, and sawdust at the start. Composting is gardening alchemy at its best and I am unnaturally intrigued by the process. Everything literally explodes with growth as soon as we top dress it with the stuff.

We had a lot farm maintenance and improvements to do because of our looming family vacation next week. In an effort to make the farm chores more automated and streamlined we've installed low-flow automatic waterers and Justin built the goats a fancy new feeder that reduces their wasteful eating habits to nil. Right now we have 2 goats, 19 laying hens, 1 rooster, 30 meat birds, 2 turkeys, 2 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 fish. That's 59 heartbeats that regularly need food and water to get through the day. For us it's not such a big deal because we are used to the usual tasks. At most the farm take 30 minutes to get all the animals taken care of and the watering done in the garden each day. We're cutting that time in half with our new improvements, so the gal coming to take care of the farm will not be completely overwhelmed.

Before we left for the river at 2 pm we had trimmed goat hooves, cleaned out the barn, top-dressed plants with compost, cleaned out and prepared a spent bed for winter crops, harvested a ridiculous number of cucumbers, planned a watering system for our front yard (which we installed later that night), and started a batch of compost tea.

The Yuba River was wonderful. We explored a new spot where the river is wide and lazy and surprisingly warm. We swam with the dogs in the gentle current for hours. The water is so clear blue that you can see straight to the bottom where the fish are swimming just beyond your reach. I was surprised at how docile their were since I don't think people fish in this spot. Daisy spent most of the time in a shallow sandy eddy pawing at the school of minnows swimming close by. Ayden just swam in and around our little rock jetty using the current at his personal doggy treadmill. It's days like this that make you appreciate the seasonality of Nevada County and the special things you can only do for a short time each year. Right now we've got juicy peaches, beautiful sunshine, and the swimming holes. And might I add that my tan is fabulous!

The end of our day was spent processing the fruits of our labor, literally. We are now beginning to ride the tidal wave of vegetable harvest. It begins placidly enough with cucumbers and squash before rising to a crescendo of tomatoes, beans, corn, peppers, more cucumbers and squash. Then in the fall will crash upon us with pumpkins and other winter squash, melons, onions, garlic, and leeks. Pickling ingredients dusted the bottom of brand new Ball jars then were joined by some sliced jalapenos and speared cucumbers both fresh from the garden. Fifteen minutes later Justin poured the simmering brining solution into the jars, we tightly sealed the lids, and turned all the jars upside-down to sit until cool. In the morning we would have 7 sealed jars of spicy pickles.

I am so thankful for all of this.

Back in the world of the technological!

I was looking at the date of the last blog post I did: March 26 huh? I cannot believe I've been without a computer for that long. The first few days after our Mac crashed I felt major withdrawl pains. By July it felt perfectly natural. In fact, I don't think I've been more productive in my life, but I did really miss sharing our farm story on the blog. So, thanks to my wonderful dad we are now in possession of the family's old gateway desktop computer and boy is it wonderful!

Let's breeze over the catch up. The garden has been exploding with green and delectable fruits and vegetables. Our baby laying chickens are now gangely teenager chickens and one of the older birds decided she wanted to have a clutch of her own, so we have 4 mixed breed baby chicks running around like they own the place! Justin and I got in a new flock of 32 meat chickens and 4 Bourbon Red turkeys. Away from the farm Justin and I have achieved some wonderful feats too. Justin and his friend Ryan climbed their longest multi-pitch route to date in Yosemite. I've been awarded a promotion at Yuba Blue! Things have been on the up and up.

My dad, step-mom, and step-brother came to stay at the farm last weekend. We had such a good time cruising around Nevada County taking in the heat and great food. It was really cool to show my family, who haven't seen the farm at this stage in it's life, just how much we have accomplished in the passed few months. They also got to experience the realities of farm life first hand when a critter of the raccoon persuasion helped itself to one of my prized turkey poults in the middle of the night. We didn't realize what happened until we were doing morning chores and noticed the chicken wire pulled away from the pen and 1 turkey missing. These are the lessons I hate learning on the farm. While I realized long ago that this life we have chosen on this farm will include regular deaths of creatures he have cared for, I would rather my animals feel that death at my hands than at the vicious paws of a wild animal. Justin and I made a promise to the rest of our flock that day to do a better job protecting them from such attacks. We were lent a pellet gun from Justin's step-dad and reinforced all the edges of the chicken pen to prevent a second raccoon feast.

More to come soon!

The Pursuit of Hap-peep-ness!

A big storm coming in today has allowed me to go into work late. For some reason people aren't as excited about coming in to buy things when there is snow on the roads (go figure). Although the weather is poor, there is a flurry of activity going on in the living room brooder, a chick party if you will. Fluttering, chirping, and pecking noises are driving Daisy absolutely insane. So far the chicks are doing great and growing so fast that every morning I can see new mature feathers growing in. Our neighbors decided to add 6 chicks to our flock so they'd have some eggs too. Now the flock has grown from the original three to eleven with only three left to arrive next Thursday. Come June we should have enough eggs to keep our fridge stocked and have enough left over to sell to friends.

Meat Chickens: We are gearing up excitedly for this years meat bird flocks. This year we've decided to do multiple smaller flocks and try some of Joel Salatin's intensive grazing techniques but with more of a free range flavor. We will do the Freedom Ranger chickens again since we had so much luck with them last year. Since this property is thickly packed with manzanita we will utilize the cover to send out our meat flocks in the relative safety and protection of electrified netting. I'm thinking we will keep the space available small, so the chickens are forced to range the ground intensively. Their manure will fertilize the ground and hopefully improve the red clay with time. Since reading Joel's books, I have really begun to think of how the animals can do the work of improving the soil for us while turning a small profit at the same time. We will begin the free ranging chicken experiment with the meat birds first, then adding the goats to brush the manzanita back a bit. The pressure will be healthy for the soil and add nutrients back that have been depleted during the heaving rains and snow we've had this winter/spring.

Goats: The girls are doing great. They are both enjoying their coats right now especially with the extra chilly night here. Justin was worried that Buttercup was too cold, so wrapped her up in Ayden's extra dog coat. She's one toasty little goat now!

Now it's time for me to head to work. I cannot wait until I can just stay here at the farm working outside with the animals, making things grow, and providing gourmet locally grown food to customers. For now I'll just have to be happy with the small steps that comprise my pursuit of Hap-peep-ness!